Stung by electoral defeats and eager to take advantage of voter unease, Colorado Republicans are largely avoiding discussion of divisive social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage to instead focus on the economy and jobs.

Social wars are still being waged in primaries in other states, but a truce of sorts has emerged among Republicans in Colorado, said Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor for The Cook Political Report in Washington, D.C.

“Usually in Colorado, everybody stakes out their ground right away: ‘I’m more conservative than my opponent,’ ” Duffy said. “There usually is that debate, and it hasn’t come up yet.”

Politicians and analysts say a combination of factors are at play:

• A financial crisis and Democratic spending that has the GOP focused on reclaiming the fiscal conservative mantle.

• A wider acceptance, or political indifference, to formerly taboo topics such as gay marriage.

• A realization that the GOP must broaden its appeal after drubbings in the past three elections in Colorado.

Social issues were rarely mentioned when nearly 400 Republicans gathered at Keystone last month to hear from candidates for U.S. Senate and governor.

Former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, who is running for the U.S. Senate, said she is pro-life and pro-marriage, but she sandwiched those positions between remarks about her support for conservation and small businesses.

Republicans recognize the talking points have changed.

“It doesn’t mean that anyone has relinquished their convictions or given up hope of seeing their convictions in policy at some point,” said former state Senate President John Andrews, R-Centennial.

“But there is a very concentrated sense of ‘first things first’ among all Republicans,” Andrews said. “Right now, the economic concerns are so urgent and the overreach of the Democrats is so blatant that everybody in the Republican chorus is singing the same tune.”

House Speaker Terrance Carroll, a Denver Democrat, said he doesn’t think the GOP cares any less about social issues.

“Republicans simply took a page out of the Democratic playbook,” he said, “and decided to finally talk about issues that really matter to people.”

Social issues vs. economy

In national exit polls in 2004, one in 10 voters said moral values was the most important issue in how they voted for president, said Lori Weigel, a partner with Public Opinion Strategies.

“You won’t get that in 2012 if things stay they way they are now,” she said. “The economy just blows everything else out of the water.”

Weigel said she doesn’t think the inherent views of conservatives have changed.

“I think what it means is Republicans are responding to voters’ priorities.”

Former state Rep. Rob Witwer of Genesee, a fiscal conservative who has voted in favor of gay rights, believes the emphasis on social issues cost the party in recent elections.

“Republican leaders, especially in Washington, became so focused on social issues that they took their eye off the ball when it came to fiscal responsibility and limited government,” he said.

But other Republicans disagree.

“I know some Republicans believe that, and they are wrong,” said Kendal Unruh, a former board member of the Christian Coalition of Colorado.

The Douglas County resident said she believes the Republican Party lost because it strayed from social issues, and those issues, she said, are tied to GOP core values, including fiscal responsibility.

But it didn’t help Beauprez that his running mate, Mesa County Commissioner Janet Rowland, earlier that year in a taped discussion on gay marriage, said, “Do we allow a man to marry a sheep? I mean at some point, you have to draw the line.”

Some evidence can be found to suggest voter interest in certain social issues is on the decline.

Statistician Nate Silver, who operates the FiveThirtyEight blog, points out that at the national Value Voters’ summit last month, abortion ranked first among issues of concern to straw-poll voters, getting 41 percent of the vote.

Protection of religious liberty was second with 18 percent, and opposition to same-sex marriage was third at 7 percent.

Two years ago at the same event, sponsored by the Family Research Council, gay marriage was the top choice of 20 percent of the attendees.

GOP consultant Mike Murphy, in a Time magazine essay in June, said the party needs to be more socially libertarian, especially toward gay rights, to attract young voters.

“With changing demographics come changing attitudes, and aping the grim town elders from (the movie) ‘Footloose’ is not the path back to a Republican White House,” Murphy wrote.

“The pro-life movement can still be a central part of the GOP — it has support among all ages (and a slim majority of Latino voters) — but the overall GOP view on abortion must aggressively embrace the big tent.”

Disapproval unites GOP

With the election of Barack Obama as president, Democrats control everything. The White House. Congress. The Colorado’s governor’s office. The Colorado legislature.

Obama inherited an estimated $1.3 trillion deficit and the worst economy since the Depression. Republicans are making the case to voters that Democrats have responded with liberal excess, from the stimulus package to health care reform to climate-change legislation.

An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll in February showed independents favoring more government intervention by 2 points. Last month’s poll showed a 21-point preference for less government intervention.

“Not only are independents changing their mind on how much government intervention they want, they’re also having a change of heart about Obama,” wrote pollster Alex Bratty.

For the first time since Obama took office, the NBC/WSJ poll shows independents giving him a negative job approval rating.

Polls haven’t been any kinder to Ritter. Republicans have targeted the governor for imposing oil and gas regulations they say have hurt the industry and for hiking car-registration fees at the same time many Coloradans are losing their jobs.

The anti-Obama, anti-Ritter sentiment has fueled what was once a demoralized and split Colorado Republican Party.

“Republicans are focusing on issues that unite us,” said state party Chairmam Dick Wadhams.

Pat Waak, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party, said she’s noticed Republicans are focused on the economy, but wonders how long before they delve into social issues.

New leadership, new ideas

As more people pay attention to the election, social issues will play a larger role, said Carrie Gordon Earll, a spokeswoman for Focus on the Family.

“That will happen because there is a core constituency that cares deeply about those issues, and they will bring them to the fore,” she said.

So will the political opponents of the leading candidates.

As they search for primary votes, GOP politicians will be asked to explain earlier positions.

Gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis, for example, entered Congress as a pro-choice Republican, although he exited in 2004 having received a zero ranking from NARAL Pro-choice America, an abortion-rights advocacy group.

“He makes no bones that he changed his views while in Congress,” said McInnis spokesman Sean Duffy.

And U.S. Senate candidate Ryan Frazier, an Aurora City Councilman, supported offering benefits to same-sex partners of city employees.

“It’s time for new leadership and new ideas,” he told Republicans at the Keystone event.

Michael Huttner, director of the liberal group ProgressNow, singled out Norton and gubernatorial candidate Josh Penry when he said Republicans won’t be able to hide their records.

Norton took heat from Democrats during former Gov. Bill Owens’ first term when, as head of the health department, she cut family-planning money from Planned Parenthood’s budget.

Norton said Friday she was following the law and doubts the incident will become a campaign distraction.

“I think the issue in this campaign is all about the debt and the economy,” she said. “It’s all about big government.”

When Penry successfully ran for the state Senate in 2006, his hometown paper, the Grand Junction Sentinel, endorsed his Democratic opponent in part because of Penry’s views that creationism should be taught in school.

He opposes abortion and supports traditional marriage.

“I’m a proud social conservative, but that’s not why I’m running,” Penry said. “The economy and the fiscal mess in Washington and Denver is what is on everyone’s mind, and those are the issues Republicans are addressing.”

The other leading Senate contender, Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck, supports traditional marriage and opposes abortion except in cases where the mother’s life is in danger.

“But the issues Ken is talking about are the economy,” said Buck’s campaign consultant, Walt Klein.

Lynn Bartels: 303-954-5327 or lbartels@denverpost.com

This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to an editing error, a headline which stated devisive social issues were prominent among Colorado Republican candidates in the 2008 elections instead of previous election cycles was deleted.

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